


All Who Glitter

by ericsonclan



Series: A Pirate's Life For Me AU [41]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Curses, F/M, Gen, Legends, gold - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28508727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericsonclan/pseuds/ericsonclan
Summary: The Ericson Pirates stumble upon a cave that has a legend attach to it.
Relationships: Aasim/Ruby (Walking Dead: Done Running), Brody/Mitch (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Series: A Pirate's Life For Me AU [41]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683673
Kudos: 3





	All Who Glitter

**Author's Note:**

> (by Linnea)

Aasim leaned over the side of the ship, hurling the remnants of lunch as the ship swayed. A long strand of saliva trailed down and dangled from his mouth before he spit it into the sea. He hated storms but this one had been particularly bad. The skies were an ominous grey as lighting and thunder rained from above. The sea itself seemed to be on a quest to have Ol’ Kickass and all the pirates on it join Davy Jones’ Locker. Luckily unlike other times no one had gotten hurt and thanks to Clementine's steering they were able to get out of it. He felt a warm hand rub his back as a voice he adored spoke.

“You doing okay?” Ruby asked with a warm smile.

“Yeah. I’ll be fine.” Aasim looked around, taking in the foreign location. “But where are we?” 

The ship stood before a large cove, its turquoise waters washing in and out, drawing the eyes toward a cave. Water fell from its ceiling, causing a quiet sound to echo throughout as the ripples spread. The cave glowed with a warm golden tone as the water fell, making it an even more curious and mysterious place. Even with the ship docked on shore, Aasim’s stomach still felt a relentless wave of nausea. 

“I’m not sure.” Prisha’s voice drew Aasim's attention as she stood with most of the crew on shore. “But we should proceed with caution.” 

“I agree.” Clementine spoke as she stared towards the cave. “We should all rest first. That storm was-” 

Louis’ gasp cut her off though as he jumped down from the ship. His boots sunk deep into the white sand before he nearly faceplanted due to his rash jump. A few stumbles and wobbly hands and the captain was back on solid footing. “I can’t believe it’s real!” His voice was filled with excitement. He did a little jig which AJ imitated. “The forbidden cove!”

“What the hell is the forbidden cove?” Mitch grumbled as he lay against the ship, his arm clutching his stomach. Brody stood beside him looking concerned for Mitch. She didn’t like how pale his face was looking.

“I’m glad you asked!” Louis shouted. With a mighty leap he jumped onto a nearby rock, his arms outstretched dramatically and his legs crouched as he stood before the crew. “Legend has it that there is a small cove around these waters with a cave hidden inside that only appears during the cycle of a full moon. It’s said to be filled with unimaginable treasure. Gold as far as the eye can see and pearls bigger than any oyster could produce! It would put even the richest men in all the seven seas to shame!” 

A gasp came from the younger boys who were entranced by the tale. Louis gave a large smile, clearly enjoying every minute. Sophie strolled forward, clearly intrigued by the tale as well.

“But!” Louis shouted, pushing back his coat dramatically, “Be warned! For whoever steals from the cave will be put under a curse! His body turned into the very thing he tried to steal… Gold!”

That drew out some gasps from the crew. Sophie smiled as she saw Willy excitedly bouncing up and down at the tale. Tenn looked just as interested in the story even if he wasn’t as energetically showing it.

Violet let out a sigh. “Really, Louis? Gold?”

“It’s true! That’s how the legend goes.” Louis exclaimed with a huff before he jumped down. 

“We should be careful.” Brody spoke up. “It may just be a legend, but we’ve dealt with things like this that turned out to be real.” 

Sophie glanced over at her friend and nodded in agreement. “Make sense. I’ve heard enough tales of your wild adventures and been in enough with this crew to know that if there is a legend the seven seas hold, there has to be some truth to it.”

“Wait! Where’s Willy?” Clementine asked. The crew all looked around before the realization hit them. 

“You don’t think….” Ruby’s gaze turned towards the cave. Everyone’s eyes followed hers.

“That idiot!” Violet grumbled as she sprinted forward, her bare feet shifting and slipping in the warm sand. The rest of the crew followed her closely, one behind the other, nervous for what kind of trouble one of the wildest Ericson Pirates could have gotten himself into. 

As they entered the cave they all froze as they saw Willy before them. His arms were covered with fancy jewelry. Emeralds, diamonds and sapphires danced on the necklace around his neck and the rings that adorned his fingers. The sharp clink of coins hitting each other drew the crew’s attention to the pirate’s hands. Dozens if not hundreds of gold coins were haphazardly tuck away in his arms and between his fingers. A crown slowly slid down his head as he looked at them with a goofy grin. 

“Willy, take it off! Drop the treasure!” Prisha shouted frantically as she began to climb the mountain of loot that the young pirate stood at the very tippy top of. 

“Which ones?” Willy’s voice was slightly muffled. 

“All of it! It’s fucking cursed!” Mitch yelled as he ran forward to help, slipping on gold and necklaces as he tried to reach him. Willy’s eyes grew large at the sight of Prisha and Mitch climbing up the gold along with Sophie and Violet. Seeing how tense they all looked, he decided it best to listen to their words. Willy chucked off the crown and began throwing away any other jewelry he had been wearing. Rings went flying and necklaces were torn off. The wild-haired pirate spat out coins as he continued his mission to get all the jewelry off.

“Why are there coins in your mouth?” Louis asked as he stared in awe of how many coins were flying out. There must’ve been easily over a dozen that he had spit out so far.

“I wanted to see if it was real or food!” Willy shouted. 

“Why would it be food?” Clementine looked utterly confused by the young pirate’s logic.

“Anything could be potential food,” Sophie argued which Mitch and Violet silently agreed to. Growing up on the streets, you’d look for food anywhere.

Suddenly Willy’s feet began to feel heavy; any feeling in his toes had disappeared. His green eyes danced with shock and fear when he looked down and noticed that inch by inch his body was turning to gold.

“What the shit?!?” Louis screamed and began to climb up the mountain of treasure too. “Guys! Help him get all the treasure off!” 

The crew ran forward, each person desperately trying to reach Willy in time. Mitch grunted as he reached the top and scurried forward to help get rid of all the treasure as the gold slowly overtook Willy’s chest. Willy took the final necklace off before his arms began to harden. As the necklace fell the last inch of his fingertips was covered. The jeweled necklace dropped with a thud as did the crew’s hearts as they looked on at the sight before them. Willy stood there, a statue of gold. 

The crew stared in silence, shocked by the sight before them. None of them knew what to say when suddenly Willy’s body shifted and began to slide down the mountain of treasure.

“Willy!” Tenn and AJ cried out as they scampered to reach him. 

“Fucking shit,” Mitch ran forward, sliding down a trail of coins as he clutched Willy’s golden form. Prisha, Sophie and Violet grabbed on as well and slowed down the descent. The four successfully got Willy to the bottom of the treasure mountain safely.

“Get him back on the ship. We can figure out a solution there.” Clementine’s voice was calm even though she didn’t feel like it. 

Louis and Marlon stepped forward, each carrying a side of Willy.

“Holy shit! How much does he weigh?” Marlon asked as he tried to move him. Mitch joined in, helping the others lift Willy. AJ and Tenn followed their example and tried to help out even though their strength didn’t match the older pirates’.

“He’s solid gold so it would make sense that he would be extremely heavy.” Aasim noted as joined in. After a few breaks, many hands and some pirates falling into the shallow water and sands of the shore, the crew got Willy onto the ship. 

“Alright, we need to start looking for solutions!” Louis announced. “Everyone split up into teams and start looking. Prisha and Aasim, look in your scrolls for anything to do with spells that involve gold. Ruby, Brody and Omar can look into things to do with natural remedies. As for the rest of us, we’ll brainstorm ideas and go from there.” Within minutes the crew got in their respective groups and quickly went to work. 

Hours flew by as night turned into day. The feeling of defeat washed over the crew as they stood before Willy’s gold figure, nowhere closer to the answer that would break him free of his golden prison. Garbage hissed in concern as she circled him. Her tail wrapped around his legs as her beady eyes darted around at the other pirates as if demanding they find a way to fix this. 

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Prisha held a hand up to her chin. “All the gold that he had worn is off.”   
“According to our scrolls that fact should make it impossible for the curse to remain,” Aasim tsked angrily. “Yet here he is, still a statue of gold.” 

The rest of the crew remained quiet. After a few minutes of doom and gloom Louis snapped his crew back into the fighting spirit and once again they continued their search. There had to be something that could help him. The crew all worked tirelessly below decks when suddenly a loud noise came from above decks, causing everyone to run up there.

“Thieves! They got Willy!” Tenn shouted as he ran down the steps and towards the others. 

“The fuck they do!” Mitch yelled as he sprinted up the stairs and towards the side of the ship. With one jump he landed on shore, running after the thieves as he swore.

“That dumbass!” Violet grumbled, putting her hands on the side of the ship and vaulting herself over the edge of Ol’ Kickass as she chased after her childhood friend. 

The thieves looked back and let out a yelp as they saw Mitch slowly gaining on them, his face twisted with anger. 

“Get back here, you pieces of shit!” Mitch snapped.

“Drop it! It's not worth it!” one of the thieves hissed. The other nodded; they had barely made it past the ship. With a scared yell the thieves threw Willy into the sea. His golden form quickly got pulled further into the water’s depths by the tide, heading out to sea. Mitch and Violet’s eyes widened in panic as they both desperately tried to grab him, but his fingers slid out of their reach as he began to sink. 

“Marlon!” Louis yelled before jumping in after Willy.

Marlon followed shortly behind. They two dove down, kicking their legs frantically as they tried to lift him up. Prisha and Clementine ran around the deck grabbing any available rope which they threw down to Louis and Marlon as soon as they emerged from the sea. After tying a few quick knots, Prisha and Clementine began to pull. Sophie grabbed the rope and began to help then Brody joined her then Ruby and soon the rest of the crew joined in as the golden boy went up inch by inch. Soon Willy’s golden form stood before them once more, safe and sound. 

Everyone was busy catching their breath, thankful that it had worked out when they noticed Willy’s sleeve had been crinkled by the pressure of the ropes. Underneath the sleeve was a small bracelet. 

“That’s it!” Louis shouted as he pointed at it. “That’s the last cursed item!”

“We need to get something that could loosen it.” Prisha said as she stared at the bracelet. 

“Cooking oil should work.” Omar said with a matter of fact voice before disappearing below decks. When he emerged he held in his hand a bowl of oil. Each crew member dipped their hand into it and started to rub the oil on the bracelet and around it. After a few minutes the bracelet started to loosen and with one hard collective pull it came off. Without a word, Louis wrapped the bracelet in a cravat before placing it in a slingshot and shooting it towards the cave.

“Bye bye you gold bully,” Louis gave a mock salute. The gold bracelet ricocheted off the wall and into the cave. The crew gave their less than pleasant farewells to the cursed object when a loud gasp from behind caused them to turn and see Willy standing before them, no longer gold. The crew all ran forward and wrapped him up in a hug. Each of them talked over each other and took turns ruffling his hair as short laughs of relief filled the air. The curse was finally broken.


End file.
